The present invention relates to a device for reading stored informations out of and writing new informations into an IC card as external memory.
The so-called IC card, which has a plurality of contact points exposed to be flush with the surface of one side thereof and electrically connected with a memory and a central processing unit respectively embedded therein, has far more memory capacity in comparison with a magnetic card so that it is going to be widely used as an identification card, credit card etc. in place of the conventional magnetic card.
The inventors have proposed a device having a pocket for an IC card to be angularly movable, as in a cassette tape recorder in U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,351, issued July 22, 1986, and European Pat. application No. 84304337.3, filed on June 26, 1984, and published Jan. 15, 1985, Pub. No. 0131410(A2). When the pocket loaded with the card is angularly moved to the closed position, the contact points of the card may be engaged with the contact pins planted in a block member which is mounted on the casing via spring means so as to be yieldingly movable.
This device must be mounted or placed, however, on the upper wall of the computer casing due to angular movement of the pocket, which may be disadvantageous from the view point of compactness.
The device having a stationary pocket in which the card is horizontally inserted has been actually used. Such a device is not satisfactory, however, in that the card is sometimes slipped out of the pocket and the tail or trailing end of the card protruded out of the casing end wall may accidentally touch something which may jeopardize electric connection of the card contact points with the contact pins in the device. When the external force affected on the card is strong, the card itself or the contact pins may be damaged. Furthermore, since the user of the IC card is often not familiar with computer operation, the card may be taken out of the device prematurely before or during the read/write operation by the computer.